


Not So Little Anymore

by KingAlanI



Category: Hunger Games (2012), Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Family, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-14
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2017-11-29 10:06:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/685733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingAlanI/pseuds/KingAlanI
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>By Alan Gilfoy in the world of Suzanne Collins. A young man reflects on his older brother and girlfriend. The Gale’s Hunger Games series from Rory’s perspective, mostly past-tense.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Savior And The Crush

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s some Rory/Prim fluff I had been planning to write. I decided to use it to post something romantic for Valentines’ Day. I happened to have been working on an action/war chapter at the time, Fanning The Flames Chapter 4, so I put this together for the occasion.

            One could look up to men a lot worse than Gale Thomas Hawthorne. My older brother had always been there, especially since our father died in the mines. We had been close even before Dad died. One of the first things I remember was him saying “I’m pushin’ ten years old. I sure am glad to meet you”. I must have been barely four. “Mom said you’re the reason her belly got so big. I didn’t believe it till she let me feel you kick. Then it happened again with Vick,” he explained. “Let me show you stuff that only big boys know,” he offered. However, it would be awhile before I learned how to hunt like he did, and there was also a big girl who knew how to do that.

 

I hadn’t remembered Vick being born – I was only a couple years old then myself. I did remember when Mommy had Posy, though – how could you forget? Even people as tough as Gale and Mommy cry when something really sad happens like Daddy being gone, that’s how I learned that, but everybody was really happy to see Posy. “Daddy’s really gone?” Vick asked, still wailing.

But he smiled when Mommy walked in with the baby and said “Do you boys want to hold your little sister?” As she handed the infant to Vick and he played with the tiny little arms, I think we were remotely happy for the first time since the explosion.

 

            Me, Vick and Posy called Gale ‘Big Man’ because he got so tall so quickly. He responded by calling me ‘Little Man’, and both nicknames stuck. Eventually Vick and I would be about as tall as Gale, but Posy probably wouldn’t – boys were usually about as tall as their brothers or daddies, but not girls. Mommy wasn’t that short, she just seemed like it compared to her special guys. There were rarely any girls that tall, but the winner of the second Hunger Games after the mine explosion was one of them. For awhile, Gale talked about how pretty she was while kissing girls who did live in this district, but he eventually stopped, and started thinking about Katniss Everdeen that way.

 

Gale faced his seventh reaping without fear, which is how I learned to face my first. I had followed his example in so many areas and would continue to do so in so many others. I should not have been surprised when he took my place in the 74th Hunger Games. Katniss was a similarly devoted older _sister_. Her teamwork with my brother in the years leading up to this had saved all of us before they saved two of us in particular. We hoped the odds would be ever in their favor. I had drawn a picture of us which I’d forgotten about in the confusion of Reaping Day, but before he went away I remembered it and gave it to him to wear into the arena.

 

            Vick and I thought the outfits were awesome! Posy clapped and smiled at seeing Gale again, even though he was only on a screen and on fire. She somehow knew the costumes were only a trick without understanding how dangerous it was to be in the situation he was in right now. I guessed it must feel good to think like that sometimes, and little girls like her always did. Even at twelve I was not so little anymore.

 

            Apparently two of the other tributes were also in love with each other. Must’ve been love at first sight for the boy from Two and the girl from One. In Gale’s interview, he showed the country what most of District 12 already knew. I was the loudest of the many cheering faces in the town square. The only people to shut up were the schoolgirl crowd, when Gale announced his love for Katniss.

 

            Gale often gladly gave us his opinion of the Capitol. This time, they could not publicly get away with the cruelty they had so often managed. Not one but two pairs of lovers would be broken up on the way to having only one tribute left.

 

            I knew Gale and Katniss could win the battle at the beginning of the Games, and I knew they’d be so happy to see each other after it! I was only a little boy, but I still knew what weddings looked like. The man and the woman heated bread together – they wrote on special paper at the Justice Building, and there was other clothes, and other food, but making that crispy bread with each other is what really counted, everybody said. And we all saw Gale and Katniss do that at dinner the first night in the arena. Big Man had girls all over him, but I didn’t think he would pick one – and marry her – this quickly. He had spent so much time with Katniss, but not the way other boys and girls spent time together, so I wasn’t sure if his special girl was really going to be her.

 

Above everything, I wanted Gale back and Prim wanted Katniss back. We each could have been happy for the other’s good fortune, but the whole country was shocked when we both got our wish. The rule change also applied to the other couple, but everyone in District Twelve was sure that Gale and Katniss would be the two to win together.

 

At that point something changed. The object of Katniss’ affection became the object of my affection. Prim had an infectiously positive personality, even in these circumstances, and I gamely tried to match her smiles. Fate had brought us closer together. As we sat under the moonlight waiting, my left hand gripped her right. There was magic in those delicate and nimble fingers. “Have you ever had a boy tell you you’re cute?” I said as I played with one of her braided ponytails.

“No,” she answered.

“Well, I just did, you cutie,” I said as I grinned. And so the little angel kissed me for the first time, right after The Announcement. I think she just meant to brush my cheeks, but our lips definitely touched.

 

Katniss hadn’t been in the schoolgirl crowd – I think Gale couldn’t stand those idiots, however pretty they were. Evidently I couldn’t either. In some ways, Katniss and Prim were as different as night and day, but they both had minds with a razor sharpness, and both cared a whole lot about the people close to them.

 

I ran to their house the next morning. Prim was thinking the same thing, and we met each other as we were running. This time our lips definitely touched on purpose. I was starting to see why Gale liked doing this so much. “Why did Katniss wait so long? This is fun!” Prim wondered. Gale had liked doing this to a lot of girls, but so far, I was happy with just the Little Duck. I thought the ducktail of her shirt hanging out of her skirt waistband was one of the many adorable things about her.

“quack,” I joked in a quiet voice that evening.

“I really know why Katniss likes Gale so much, you’re cute and clever too,” Prim said, barely able to stop talking. Our lips touched again. The boys at school had called Gale ‘King Of The Slag Heap’ because of all the girls he took there before he met Katniss. I guess that made me the prince. He hadn’t found his queen until that day in the woods and it took him a bit of time to figure that out, but I think I had already found my princess.

 

The rumors had spread at least amongst our family. “Don’t you know girls are icky?” Vick teased.

“No they aren’t, not anymore,” I told him. “This one certainly isn’t.”

“Apparently two of my boys both love Everdeen girls,” Mommy had said. I opened my mouth to say something back, but I hesitated at the word – it is an important word, after all. “Oh, you’re making it clear - Prim this, Prim that.”

 

Well then, I’d tell her! “Most girls really like hearing that,” Gale had told me before.

“So tell Katniss,” I had said back. “I know you think about her like that.”

“I have to be careful. Katniss is different from most girls in a lot of ways, including that,” I think he had said.

 

I wouldn’t wait as long as he had. I couldn’t wait to see Prim again so I could tell her! I walked over to her house to go to school with her. “Little Duck, I think I love you.”

“I’m pretty sure I love you too, Little Man,” she answered, and we kissed again. I did something I had seen Gale do – hold the girl and play with her hair, to be even closer to her. I was pretty sure her mommy was looking out the window smiling at us. Maybe we weren’t so little any more.

That day was Vick’s 11th birthday, and I was going to go to the bakery to get him something sweet. Mom had given me a few brown coins soon before that probably to do that with. Of course I had to go there with Prim. A lot of people smiled when they saw the two of us walking together. One of the baker’s sons was selling things that day, and I think he gave me more than he should have for those few coins. “I drew that on the cookies myself,” he said.

As we were walking to my house, I broke off one of those sugary yellow petals to feed to my little angel. She gave me a piece of one of the red ones. We licked the crumbs off each others’ lips. “No wonder most boys and girls think this is sweet,” I told her.

“Rory, you’re so sweet even when you don’t have cookies,” she laughed. We did have some cookies left for Vick, Posy and our mommies.

 

I had been wondering about something and wanted to ask Mommy about it. “Prim’s hair is yellow, but everyone else’s is dark,” I said.

“Her mommy has light hair too,” she answered. “A lot of the people from town do.”

“But why are they over here? Who’d want to live over here when they could live in one of those nice houses?” I wondered.

“Her mommy used to live there, but she moved because she really loved Prim and Katniss’ daddy,” she explained. “Love makes people do lots of crazy things, so watch yourself, Little Man,” she warned.

“Well, if their daddy was as awesome as our daddy was, no wonder she did that,” I thought aloud.

“Rory, that’s so sweet. Their mommy used to be very pretty, so no wonder he did that, and since Prim looks so much like her, I can see why you like her so much,” Mom agreed.

 

Katniss wasn’t the only one to have the little girl from Eleven remind them of Prim. It was clear they were both sweet young ladies. A lot of people were sad when Rue died, and cried even more when Katniss put flowers over her before the plane took her away, and my little angel was one of them. However, I was used to my angry older brother, and could only think of how cruel it was for them to be sent there in the first place.

 

We all saw that the boy from District Two loved the girl from District One - they weren’t making up what they had said in the interviews. The way they were behaving, it wasn’t surprising that they were having a baby. But it couldn’t be quite like how Gale loved Katniss after their years getting food for us in the woods, and it looked like my amazing older brother was able to both outsmart and outfight them. I would be so happy to see him and my new sister-in-law again, and Katniss would be so happy to see how good I made her Little Duck feel.


	2. In-Laws In Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fanning The Flames from Rory’s perspective
> 
> As is often the case, I rewrote a previous chapter while working on the new one.
> 
> Rory/Prim is a small element in DBlaZe’s amazing fic “Knightingale”, which gave me the idea for the ship. Another Time by Stella’s Little Rebels is a great fic with a Rory/Prim focus. Stella couldn’t continue that story, so I’m working on it. Now for this Rory/Prim…

            Prim and I would be the stars of the final-eight interviews for our big siblings. Sure, my mom explained what the toasting was and a bit of Gale and Katniss’ history, but the audience would really like seeing me and Prim together. Everybody told us we were a cute couple, but we made sure to look even cuter in front of the cameras. We were holding hands pretty much all of the time. This was not difficult, though I had to tell Vick I was not worried about cooties.

 

After Gale, Katniss, Cato and Glimmer all made it to the last eight, they were the last four. Katniss showed how mad and sad she was about losing Rue. Usually dead tributes just got a cannon and a plain wooden box. In District Twelve, you learned that awfully quick. The Capitol would not like Katniss caring more than they did.

The two couples had been one-upping each other since Reaping Day. They would also do that with angering the Capitol. Cato was the first to refuse to fight it out – people in those districts fought their entire life and now he’d have a whole different fight to deal with. Right now they were facing another arena challenge, working together against some beasts the Gamemakers had sent. It was shocking to know the whole country was hearing the kinds of things Gale had been saying for a long time. The four fought the creatures as a team, and they left the arena as a team. Yet we worried what would happen to them next.

 

We were also quite concerned about ourselves. We all knew the Capitol would get even angrier, and they might get the families of the people that were causing them so much trouble. A Peacekeeper who was one of Gale and Katniss’ friends from the Hob warned us. We went and hid in the woods. We were saved by people who had already rescued Cato and Glimmer’s families.

The lady in charge was a victor, but I didn’t focus on that since she won so long before I was born. My parents had been little kids when she won, and Mom sounded like she had barely remembered Lyme until now. I was a bit younger when Finnick and Annie won, but I didn’t know any of the other victors that were coming with us.

Lyme even fed us. Vick and Posy especially liked her candy – real chocolate! My little siblings were the least restrained about being able to stuff their faces with something, anything, for once. Prim and I ate different ends of the same piece as our latest excuse to kiss, making her lips _literally_ sweet this time.

Prim’s mom wasn’t so happy about the snacks – it reminded her of a sweet shop in the Merchant Section where people didn’t like her anymore, and when her friend who worked there got reaped.

 

We ended up in a rebel hiding place. District Thirteen hadn’t really been totally destroyed the last time. They were also angry enough to get ready for the next time.

 

A different plane had gotten all four of them out of the arena. We were all seeing each other again! I wrote something sweet on a sign to show them: ‘The saved welcome home their saviors.’

As Prim held it up, I shouted at Gale. “Big Man! Is it real?”

Katniss interrupted to say “Big Man? You’re more right than you know.”  
Gale went on to tell me “Yes, it’s really me”.

“I mean, you with her,” I asked about finally seeing Gale and Katniss together.

“Neither did us. It’s totally real, although sometimes we hammed it up for the cameras,” he explained seriously.

“So you finally picked one…I think I might have too,” I said, quietly pointing to Prim. I didn’t really notice Little Duck greeting Katniss as I was just as excited about talking to Gale again. “I think we bonded over being relatively lucky enough to have the best older siblings in the world,” I explained.

“Thank you, Little Man! … but remember that they’re different – in short, Katniss is a daddy’s girl and Prim is a momma’s girl. Also, I always wanted to make sure you behaved around the ladies when the time came, but especially this one, got it? If she’s anything like her sister, you aren’t going to be able to think of anything else.” _He was right again._

 

            Gale said maybe I looked up to him so much that I fell for a girl in the same family as his, which was sort of like Prim saying that I reminded her of why Katniss likes Gale. Gale had to remind Vick that girls _weren’t_ icky. I had learned that pretty recently, but I still took the chance to pile on my little brother. A lot of things weren’t normal anymore; it was good to know that some still were.

Our mommas had told them how much fun it was to watch them do a toasting. Gale asked Katniss to marry him again. We saw some of his arena injuries and Prim must’ve gotten to thinking about how to treat them. They got plenty of cheers from the audience that really mattered to them, and they took a bow together. Cato had already asked Glimmer to marry him for the first time.

 

When Katniss finally stopped hugging Prim, the younger Everdeen ran over to Gale to yell “Shoulder!” and Gale started carrying her. Glimmer’s little sister Lustre copied the idea with Cato, and had better shoes to kick him with. Then Posy wanted me to give her a ride. When we went to see the rest of District Thirteen, Glimmer and Posy were definitely the most popular.

Cato saw how happy they were to see his girlfriend, and corrected them with “Treating her like a princess is her prince’s job”, which Glimmer herself thought was particularly funny.

 

Since their district was by itself, their mayor was called another president. Gale got angry about why they didn’t help the other districts earlier. Well, that was certainly an introduction to my older brother. He was quite glad to get his rants broadcast instead of limited to a few trusted people back home. Gale said later that although we could use their help to defeat the Capitol, he didn’t want just another group of people ordering us around.

 

We were safe here, well-fed and things like that for once. However, the people here didn’t seem to enjoy themselves much. I suppose that made sense with how plain everything was. Because of that, I figured they would especially enjoy watching the big weddings.

 

There were two other victors that also loved each other. _So that’s what Finnick and Annie were doing on the plane with us_ , I thought. A lot of people were surprised that’s who Finnick really loved, that he didn’t really enjoy visiting what seemed like every woman in the Capitol.

Gale had said that there were some things only another victor really understood. That might explain why he grew even closer to Katniss even if that meant spending less time with us. It might also explain why Annie snuck up on Finnick after she won a few years later.

All three pairs decided to get married at the same time. It would be less than a week from when we arrived. Gale would be glad to be living alone with Katniss instead of being in the same compartment as us. He had to remind Vick that girls weren’t icky, that you did icky things with them. Well, Gale was growing up even more than we were.

 

Gale and Katniss wanted to go hunting again, which did not surprise me at all. I was surprised Gale wanted to take Cato with him, how well they were getting alone after a couple weeks of trying to kill each other. I suppose that was odd but in a good way. Cato seemed awfully excited about it, but killing things so they could be eaten seemed like a relatively reasonable use of violence. I was also surprised Gale was ready to start teaching me. “It’s time for me to get started?” I asked quietly.

            He answered me at higher volume. “Rory, Katniss and I had already been out in the woods for months by the time we were your age.”

Gale and Cato were carrying their army guns. Guns were generally preferred over bows for a reason, and they’d need to get used to military gear which I didn’t have. People my age were too young for that both physically and mentally, so even though we wanted to help, it might not have done much anyway. Also, ending childhood at twelve would’ve drawn unfavorable comparisons to the people we were fighting – people would’ve been less enthusiastic about a rebellion they didn’t think was much better than the Capitol. Katniss was old enough, but she wouldn’t feel right hunting with something besides a bow. We went to the weapons room to get two guns, Katniss’ archery set from the arena and a smaller one for me. She probably would’ve liked her bow and arrows from back home, but we hadn’t gotten those while escaping.

 

When we got to this district’s woods, Gale was in front of me and to the right. He was surprisingly quiet for a big guy. Cato was as loud as I expected. Gale and Katniss caught or picked several small things. I looked at the plants to see what to look for myself, but then I saw something much more interesting, pointing at a bunch of deer. With my bow in that direction, I let go of the string and somehow hit one of them. Obviously this scared the other deer and they started to run away, but Katniss aimed at the direction they were running, and just as surely hit another. Gale and Cato shot two more that were even further away by then. That seemed to be enough. “Way to go, Little Man!” Gale shouted when we were finished. “That’s enough for now!” he continued to yell.

“Eh, beginner’s luck,” Cato countered.

I got the arrow out just fine, pulling at it near the tip like I saw Katniss doing. But when I tried to pull at the dead deer itself, it wouldn’t move. Cato was already carrying his and he picked up mine too like it was nothing. It was a shame Glimmer wasn’t here – that kind of tough-guy stuff really appealed to her. Gale wasn’t quite like that, but had Katniss been infatuated by such things, she wouldn’t really be Katniss. I carried a bag of the smaller stuff we caught.

“Was this a good idea or was this a good idea?” Gale announced to both his hunting partners and the kitchen staff. “Someone else butchers and cooks it, definitely a good idea,” he whispered to me.

 

The four of us were served first when we went to the dining hall that evening. That made sense. In the Seam you had to eat pretty much anything, but I especially liked deer meat from the few times Gale or Katniss had gotten so lucky in the woods before. Some of it had been cooked plain and some of it had been stewed up. “You can celebrate your first kill by eating first,” Gale told me. “Normally it is not so quick and grand a kill as this – the odds were in your favor.”

I just knew they ate much better in the richer part of a richer district, but apparently Cato had never eaten this in particular. “It’s very strong, that’s for sure. Almost overpowering by itself, but quite pleasant in the stew,” he said.

One of the District Thirteen people visited our table to say “We are well fed here, but normally not so heartily as this. Congratulations”.

 

Even with more hunting, there was a wedding and a war on everybody’s minds. The wedding Prim and I could help with. There was at least one thing Katniss and Glimmer had in common – a dear little sister that was, amongst other things, the obvious, only, choice for wedding attendant. Cato, Finnick and Annie didn’t have any brothers or sisters, and their friends were back in their home districts, and they each picked one of their fellow victors.

I would walk with Gale. “You’ll have to put up with this ‘Primrose Everdeen’ creature,” Gale joked when he picked me. My job was easier – the guys didn’t have fancy clothes that they needed help putting on. They’d be wearing the army uniforms but they’d be carrying different weapons. Cato with a sword looked nearly as natural as Katniss with a bow, which awed me.

 

However, the ladies would be unarmed, obvious to Glimmer and Annie but something Katniss joked about. What exactly their dresses looked like would be a surprise, but with Katniss’ stylist involved, I was sure they’d look real good. Finnick said that Annie would be pretty even wrapped in paper – he could be really sweet like that which was so different from how he had acted in public. Cato figured that Glimmer’s dress would look good on her but would look even better on the floor of their compartment. Gale agreed with both sentiments. “Fun listening to the big boy jokes, ain’t it?” Gale whispered to me.

 

Prim and I would hold hands and walk together, just like our big siblings and their friends, and would even kiss at the same time they did. Cato’s token had been a gold coin which had been melted down and cast into four rings. Me and Prim looked real forward to slipping them on Gale and Katniss. Finnick and Annie had rings already, gifts from old victors who had married each other but were dead now. That all went according to the beautiful plans, although all the talking got a bit boring.

 

The dresses were color-coded – water blue for the fishing district woman, bright colors for the luxury lady, and forest green for the huntress. Katniss got her arrows in the lace patterns. That compromise was perfect for her and was another example of how good this Cinna guy was at what he did. The cakes had district-themed colors too. But Cato and Glimmer’s was the gray of District Two stone instead of District One’s pink and purple. The District Twelve tree cake had a picture of the five Hawthornes, like the drawing I had done for Gale, but with the three Everdeens added. Lustre was much better at this art stuff than I was, but I’m glad she liked my idea. Things got a lot more fun when I pointed out that the cakes tasted like Lyme’s candy. We ate a lot, even more than District Thirteen usually let us have, but there would be plenty left for Lustre’s 14th birthday tomorrow and finally doing something for Vick’s 11th birthday from a few days ago. Back in the Seam, we would’ve been lucky to have a few pieces total, if that.

 

The three couples who got married today got their new compartments next to each other. In the hallway Gale and Katniss would show them how the toasting worked. The wedding itself had had a lot of things done the District Four way. District Two weddings were even less fancy than ours, and I guess District One wedding things had shown up in a lot of the general fancy stuff.

 

Putting the wedding on TV would be real popular after how much the country had come to like all the people involved. This would help the rebellion by reminding people of what the Capitol wanted to take away.

 

Gale and Katniss had their special day today. For the in-laws in love, if this war brought any sort of the promised future, it would be our turn in several years.


	3. The Home Front

Most of the rebel soldiers had gone somewhere else one morning about two weeks after the big wedding. It was a war, there were bound to be battles sooner rather than later. But I was surprised that I didn’t see my mom or Prim’s mom either. “Rory! They must’ve gone to District Twelve and needed District Twelve people to show them around,” Prim realized. Little angel was smart too, and not just with school stuff, but also figuring things out.

 

Posy certainly liked Glimmer. Posy liked a lot of typical girl things, and here was a girl with the money and time for such stuff. Glimmer found Posy as many pink clothes as possible. She also did Posy and Prim’s hair while we waited. Prim looked even cuter this way, if that was possible. It was a wonder that her hair stayed yellow and Posy’s was still black instead of those being made pink too.

 

Vick was chasing me around. He insisted I was running after him. Either way, Glimmer steered us away from running into things or other people. Yet this still kept me from spending time with Prim. “Rory and Prim sittin’ on the floor!” he jokingly taunted.

“Too young to do any more than K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” Glimmer added, though she wasn’t much older. “Yes I can’t shoot,” she said sarcastically. “But I still could catch both of you if you don’t be quiet,” she threatened.  
            “Quiet. Quiet is good,” Annie said. We left the girls alone after that.

 

Hovercrafts started landing filled with people from District Twelve. The soldiers were still busy. The news was mostly good. Many of the Peacekeepers who went to the Hob had even chosen us over the Capitol.

Most of the people from our district ended up coming back here. I didn’t know many of them. Most Townies wouldn’t let “Seam rats” get close to them. I was too young to know fellow Seam folk through The Hob or the mines.

 

“Glimmer loves bright pink too!” my sister squealed.

“Most girls do, though some like Katniss are special,” Gale told our youngest sibling.

While we were still gathered for the homecoming, Glimmer caught me looking at Prim’s hair again. “He already understands the value of his girl getting beautified,” Mrs. Adams explained to Gale. _Prim was already beautiful_ , I thought to myself with a smile.

“That kind of growing up I can deal with,” Gale said. Sure seemed better than being old enough for the war.

 

Gale and Katniss had run into the baker’s son in a dramatic fashion. If Peeta Mellark had any boldness, it could have been him with Katniss’ heart years ago. That trait ran in our family, so we imparted some of ours. Madge loved Katniss too. Gale got that right. “You like women? Well, you certainly have good taste in them,” he repeated.

 

Gale had used my sketch as his tribute token, and he’d carried it under his armor this time. Peeta could actually draw well, and the Mellark boy said he could help me get a lot better. I bet he and Lustre would get along real well.

 

Ellen Flowers from the Seam had a baby at this of all times. Prim’s mom helped with the birth. It was kind of funny that in the first battle she did something she also did in regular life. The newborn was named Mockingjay after the bird in Katniss’ pin.

 

Peeta liked the baby girl, and his girlfriend liked that. It made sense for Bridget to look for that, especially if she wanted babies of her own someday. Peeta was cute too – I liked girls but could still see that. “Townies are in better shape because they have enough to eat,” Prim pointed out.

“Especially if they work in a bakery,” I responded.

“His brothers are strong too. The three of them always win the wrestling competitions at school,” Prim pointed out. “And Townies can get better medicines so an injury doesn’t look as bad,” she added.

 

A lot of people recognized that this war was necessary and did what they could to help with it. Gale almost seemed to enjoy the fighting. He finally got to do something about his anger against the Capitol. It must’ve helped to do so much good at home in the first battle. “The Capitol is so wrong that we should do whatever it takes to stop them,” Gale explained. “Rebels who can’t do what it takes should stay out of our way.”

 

For example, people had to be quiet about Cray paying all those girls to sleep with him. Apparently Ellen was one of those girls, and Mockingjay was his baby. He was one of those Peacekeepers who was on our side now, and because of what a Head Peacekeeper knew, we especially needed his help.

 

Ellen’s dad had died in the same mine explosion, and her mother had starved to death. No wonder she and her sister Anna had to do things like go to Cray.

 

Peeta had written a poem about what Gale and Katniss did for me and Prim, for our district. Bridget and her grandfather were musicians and made a song out of it.

 

Mrs. Everdeen’s townie relatives started trying to be nice to her now that we were so famous. Gale just knew that was suspicious. Her mother said something mean about how Prim being like her mom included liking Seam boys. Maybe little angel wouldn’t be such a sweetheart about it.

 

Most of the people from our district liked it here. At least District Thirteen had a healthy amount of food and other important things like that. A lot of people were excited about fighting the Capitol. The rebellion would be getting a few thousand new soldiers.

There hadn’t been many people around, and now there were. This all did help Thirteen, they weren’t helping us just to help us, but most people weren’t as nice as some of the people I knew.

 

I finally got a good chance to sit down and talk with Gale. “I gotta talk to you about Everdeen girls,” I told him.

“A lot of people, especially me, wondered when something was going to happen between me and Katniss,” he admitted.

“I didn’t think about that until this started, but we definitely saw you two get married,” I explained.

“That was the idea, for everyone in District 12 to see it,” he reminded me. “I don’t think anybody expected you two to start dating, though,” he said.

            “It’s because of something nobody expected. We all would have been so happy to get just one of you back, and then everybody went crazy about that announcement. Me and Prim had already been waiting together – that night, I held her hand and told her she was cute,” I announced, very proud of myself.

            “I bet she liked that,” Gale said. Prim sure thought it had been really sweet.

“Heck, she kissed me. She touched my lips, though I think she was just trying to brush my cheek.” I said happily. Of course I was in a good mood when I thought about me and Prim kissing.

            Apparently Gale didn’t think it was an accident. “She’s a smart girl, she knew what she was doing,” he insisted.

            “She already knew she loved me?” I said, even more cheerful. “Mommy said I definitely loved that girl, so guess what? The next time I saw Little Duck, I told her!”

            Gale definitely seemed happy to hear that. “Way to go, Little Man! Heck, you’re so my brother that you’re in love with the sister of the girl I’m in love with.”

            Apparently he and Little Duck had similar thoughts on that. “Prim said I reminded her of why Katniss likes you,” I reported. Then I told him what happened on Vick’s birthday. “We were with each other all day. I kissed her outside her house, and I’m pretty sure her mommy was smiling at us. After school, she went with me to the bakery to buy him some cookies. Me and Prim fed some cookie pieces to each other. We thought cleaning off the crumbs was another excuse to kiss.”

            Gale laughed as he argued that two people in love don’t need excuses.

            “Like being in your big brother and big sister’s wedding together?” I wondered. That did seem like a good excuse though.

“I totally saw that. At least you didn’t put your tongue in her mouth or your hands on her rear end, unlike some couples we know,” he said.

Apparently that was a bad idea, Cato and Glimmer didn’t care, and we all saw it. “What, you’re not supposed to do that?” I said, also laughing.

“Oh, it’s really fun when you’re old enough, but I think you shouldn’t be like that if there are so many other people around,” I explained.

 

Snow was making propos saying mean things about the big wedding. Like what Prim’s grandmother said about Prim with me, some things made people really angry because they were more than just mean for a moment.

Snow didn’t publically complain about losing Twelve. “He knows that the public will see it as a good thing. So it wouldn’t help him to remind us of it,” Prim told me. Talking about Peeta and Bridget’s song did seem to help the rebels. We did seem to have good reasons to feel good about how the war was going.

 

District Thirteen got some more victors out of District Three. We also got a victor from Ten. This Annie seemed to like the other one we already knew. However, that was just part of a big battle there, and the rebels also fought through Eleven on their way back to Thirteen. We even caught the mayors and their families of both districts.

 

Gale said the Peacekeepers and the fences were way worse there. People had been running through the streets angry at the Capitol and glad they finally had an opportunity to do something about it. There were an awful lot of dead people and destroyed things, but that’s what war was like.

 

However, they found Thresh and Rue’s families. Lucky to find a few specific people in such a big district, I suppose. His sister and her father were part of a great rant during the train ride home, which was turned into a propaganda broadcast. How long would it take the Capitol to realize that their time was up?


	4. The Cost of Victory

            I was always happy when Gale made it back to this underground base. He had survived so much at home, I totally believe he could survive this too. So many people were dying, it was hard to think much about the ones you didn’t know.   A pair of sisters from this district had both side, one in my district, one in Ten.

 

            The rebels had a big loss in District Eight, and Snow’s propaganda was glad to talk about this. Cecelia’s husband Alex was killed helping the rest of the rebel soldiers get back out. We’d make a big deal out of that funeral as an example of what the Capitol had taken away.

            Cecelia II, Taylor and Stitch had just lost a father. I was reminded of something Gale had said many times before. He thought the mine explosion was a setup to kill miners who were a threat to the Capitol. So our father had also died fighting the Capitol, in a way. At least there was enough to bury this time. Gale helped carry the coffin.

 

            Some victors were still in the Capitol, and the rebels were able to get some of them out. In the next big battles, victors were killed and victors were brought back. Gale taught me new words while describing those victors who had remained loyal to the Capitol.

 

            The girl from the 71st Games was a rebel too, and she was even bigger and prettier in person. Gale looked at her even though he loved Katniss, so I thought it was okay for me to do something like that. When Vick saw Sapphire, he stood there silently with his mouth hanging open. Several seconds later, he announced “Suddenly I don’t think girls are so icky.”

            “That … that is a unique version of the effect I have on boys,” she answered with surprise. He was young enough that it was sweet and innocent coming from him.

 

            Cato was just as interested in her swordfighting. She had one with a pretty handle, but his plain weapon was just as good. She barely won a duel against him. At least they weren’t trying to kill each other, so it seemed okay.

 

            In District Two, Gale had thought of a clever way to bomb a Capitol fortress. Back here, he and Beetee were working on other clever weapons. He was so good with snares and it made sense that he could use that for things besides hunting. Well, maybe you could say he was hunting Peacekeepers now.

 

            Glimmer was wearing a pair of black pants with a pink stripe on the waist; this was an explosion of color compared to most clothes here in District Thirteen. Cato was giving her a smile that seemed in no way sweet. It was great that they loved each other, but Gale was right that they did too much of displaying their affection in public.

 

            The whole country knew Glimmer was having a baby, but so was Annie. Apparently once she and Finnick could finally get married they weren’t wasting any time. Glimmer, because of her little sister, had always wanted a baby girl. Gale certainly wished Katniss thought this way.

 

“She probably will eventually once it’s clear that the Capitol’s gone for good,” Prim said. We were all getting more confident that the Capitol really could be defeated. “She cares so much about the few people in her life, and she loves her family so much. I wouldn’t be surprised when she has kids of her own.”

            “And ‘Auntie Prim’ makes you sound even sweeter,” I replied, brushing some water droplets off the corner of her mouth.

            “’Uncle Rory’ doesn’t sound bad either,” she answered, brushing my dry face.

 

            We all knew that eventually the rebels would be attacking the Capitol itself. Glimmer and Peeta worked together to write a speech for Gale. They had found an old political speech in the library and made a version of it to fit our situation. This was the last broadcast before the soldiers and aircrew left.

 

            It was almost the end of the year, nearly five years since me and Prim’s dads died. Finally the districts would have their revenge for that and so many other things. We’d keep the Capitol form doing stuff like that to us ever again.

 

            Prim was gone! I couldn’t find her anywhere! I wondered where she was, but didn’t find her any place she might be in the district. Not the Everdeen compartment. Not the infirmary. Not the nursery with its few occupants; someday she might be with our baby instead of little Mockingjay Flowers. There must be something very wrong if she wasn’t in any of those places. It dawned on me that somehow she ended up on a battlefield. She cared so much she could do reckless things to try and help. Did she talk District Thirteen officials into it or did they talk her into it?

 

There was a reason the minimum was fourteen, and some people went on about how even that was too low. We didn’t seem desperate to go even lower; the war seemed to be going well. Lustre was barely old enough; she’d done quite well throughout the war, including the rescue of District Twelve. There was no news about how she was doing in the Capitol right now, but we weren’t worried. People in a war couldn’t talk about some stuff in case the enemy found out. Maybe we only would have heard if something bad happened.

 

            Katniss being off in the Capitol would merely delay Still Ms. Everdeen’s wrath against Coin for sending Prim away. Ingrid would certainly felt a renewed surge of motherly love. Surely Coin knew that. Maybe she thought she could hide being responsible for it; a lot of people overestimated what they could get away with. Alma Coin would definitely be punished for clipping the little angel’s wings.

 

            Not only had Prim gone to the battle, she had been badly wounded! Coin had used rebel firebombs on Capitol children. She had been hurt because she tried to help. Gale knew the bombs were still dangerous and got the rebel medics to get out of the way. Maybe they were one of the things he had built with Beetee. Yet certainly he meant for them to be used only on Peacekeepers. Beetee was usually a calm old man, but no wonder he was very angry now.

 

            Rebels made a propo at the hospital where Prim was. Her momma was still caring for her. District Twelve healers were really good with burns because of all the people hurt in the mines. Now she had fancy Capitol equipment to work with, and really needed it. I hated to see how hurt Little Duck was! Her braids and the back of her shirt were burnt through.

            “Catnip?” she said softly, using the nickname for Katniss that Gale did. “You really got Snow?”

            “Sure did, Little Duck,” Katniss said. Lots of really sad things were happening, so it seemed really helpful that she was being happy.

            “No more Games?” Prim realized.

            “No more Games,” Katniss answered. Practically everybody cheered, both the people in the hospital and the people watching back home.

 

            The commander of Prim’s medic squad said she’d been told Prim was born in 60 instead of 62. Sarah Morgan was real angry with Coin too, but said she couldn’t have sent Prim back once the battle had started. Lieutenant Morgan announced that Glimmer’s sister had survived, along with some other rebel soldiers we also knew.

 

            Some morphling did make Prim feel better, just like it was supposed to, but even that super powerful drug could only do so much. Still, Prim was able to explain some more of what had happened. “Maybe Coin was trying to blame it on Snow. Although pretty much everybody knew how bad he was, maybe she thought it would’ve finished the war quicker.”

            “It was pretty much over anyway, Little Duck,” Katniss responded.

            “She was trying to replace Snow, rather than free us from him. She was trying to kill people who were too smart to let her get away with that, and those Capitol kids were in the way – poor babies, they’re not so rich now.”

 

            Talking about it public would make it harder for Coin to keep things quiet. She tried to stop the broadcast, but the communications techs kept going. Most of Coin’s immediate subordinates voted to remove her from office while this was being investigated. Her second in command was in charge for now.

 

            Snow had been publically executed, Gale and the other victors naming Capitol victims while loading rifles for the firing squad. Something similar might happen to Coin. To really fix things, we’d also need to get rid of other people like Snow.


End file.
